Hackers Didn't Steal Apple IDs From the FBI: Developer

An image taken from an Anonymous video. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

(Newser)
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Hackers didn't swipe a trove of Apple user IDs from the FBI after all, says an app developer—who admits the information was taken from his company's databases. "That's 100% confidence level, it's our data," says Paul DeHart, CEO of Blue Toad. "As soon as we found out we were involved and victimized, we approached the appropriate law enforcement officials." If true, the FBI wasn't storing the millions of IDs to track users, as Anonymous had claimed.

But these identifiers—called UDIDs, or Unique Device Identifiers—are still out there, and security researcher Aldo Cortesi says they can be used to break into contact lists and gaming accounts. "With mischievous entities like Antisec and Anonymous about, you can even envision a massive public dump of users' private information, just for the hell of it," Cortesi says. But DeHart disagrees, saying an Apple developer's account is needed to exploit the UDIDs. Still, concerned users can visit a search engine like this one to see if their UDID was pilfered. (Read more Apple stories.)

"With mischievous entities like Antisec and Anonymous about, you can even envision a massive public dump of users' private information, just for the hell of it," Cortesi says.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Highly doubtful. Nice try to bait.